"Brat! You'd better worry about yourself first!"
Whitebeard's lips tugged into a faint smile as he cast a proud glance skyward toward Jiang Lin.
"Is that so? These small fry… they're not worthy to be your opponents."
Jiang Lin's voice rang out like iron. The next instant, a torrent of fire erupted from his body, surging upward in boundless waves until it cloaked the entire sky above Marineford in burning crimson.
"Wh-what is this? The heavens themselves… burning? And why—why is he floating in the air!?"
Terror washed over the gathered Marines. Faces twisted in disbelief as they gazed up at the inferno that swallowed the firmament, their expressions sinking into despair.
Flames could burn a city to ash—but fire that set the sky ablaze was something else entirely. It was the herald of catastrophe.
"Firefall!"
Jiang Lin roared, and the fire at his side lanced downward in streams of blazing rain. Thousands of jets of flame screamed toward the plaza below, plunging the battlefield into chaos.
"Scatter!"
On the execution platform, Sengoku bellowed, his body instantly swelling into the colossal golden Buddha. His massive palm swept through the air, swatting aside torrents of fire threatening to engulf the platform.
As Sengoku struck, Marine commanders and Warlords of the Sea hurled themselves into the fray, blades flashing and powers unleashed. The clash of steel against an all-consuming inferno painted the skies above Marineford in a vision of the world's end.
Screams echoed—ragged, desperate, unending—like a dreadful chorus as the soundtrack of ruin
High above it all, Jiang Lin hovered, his gaze dropping to the burning city beneath. His eyes locked with Sengoku's, golden Buddha against flame-wreathed demon.
"Jiang Lin!"
"Sengoku!"
Their eyes met across the flames, the twin standards of the battlefield, the two pillars upon which victory and defeat now rested.
"Sengoku," Jiang Lin's voice thundered across the heavens, "release Ace. Let Whitebeard's men retreat. End it here."
Sengoku's reply struck like a blow. "The justice of the Navy is not to be defiled. You will die here, Jiang Lin!"
His golden form burst from the platform, charging into the air to strike.
"Prison of Flame!"
Jiang Lin's hand swept outward, and the falling firestreams abruptly shifted. No longer raining at random, they curved, piercing outward toward the outskirts of the island. Beam by beam, they met, encircling Marineford in a colossal burning cage.
"Vacuum Zone!"
The fiery lattice blazed brighter, its gaps vanishing as the air itself was ripped away. In a heartbeat, all oxygen within the cage was gone—sucked upward toward the heavens. The island trembled, the very sea around it dragged skyward in surging columns.
This was the true power of the Flame-Flame Fruit's awakening: to erase air from existence itself, to render fire impervious to water, even the corrosive weight of the sea. Jiang Lin had seized it wholly, and with it, command over life and death.
The entire island began to rise. Fire spread downward from the cage, wrapping Marineford in a blazing cocoon.
Silent screams rose from below, bodies writhing without breath. Beneath Jiang Lin's feet, an ocean of fire raged, and within it—the trapped city, along with every Marine, every pirate… even Ace himself.
"Sengoku! Accept my terms—or watch them all die!"
Jiang Lin's words roared like thunder. Sengoku's massive figure trembled, his golden eyes wide as he stared at the infernal prison that held not only his forces but also the very man Jiang Lin claimed to save.
"You… you would bury them all here? Do not forget! Inside aren't just Marines—there are also the Whitebeard Pirates, and even Ace himself!"
His voice cut like ice, but he could not hide his shock. Moments ago, he had prepared to give the order for Ace's second execution. Now, in a single breath, the entire battlefield lay smothered by fire.
"And what of it?"
Jiang Lin's voice came cold, merciless. He knew precisely how long humans could endure in a vacuum. This was no bluff. It was a gamble—on willpower, on who would yield first.
"Jiang Lin! If you persist, you will become the Navy's—and the World Government's—greatest criminal. You will be hunted with no place left to stand."
Though strain edged Sengoku's voice, he forced himself to remain calm and measured. Tens of thousands of lives now hang in the balance. He and Jiang Lin alone would decide whether they lived or suffocated in flame.
It was a wager Sengoku had never imagined making.
"Better that Ace die here, among comrades—than to perish alone at your hands."
Resolve burned in Jiang Lin's eyes. Against Sengoku's cunning, there could be no weakness.
Seconds bled into eternity. Thirty heartbeats after the vacuum took hold, a suffocating silence gripped all of Marineford. Even Jiang Lin and Sengoku, locked in their deadly contest, felt tension claw at their chests.
Sweat dripped from Sengoku's brow. The calm mask had shattered, leaving only strain, only stubbornness gnawing at his face.
"Contract."
Jiang Lin's voice rang like a blade. At his command, the flaming prison began to shrink, closing tighter around the suffocating island.
Through the narrowing cage, the battlefield came into view—wreckage and ruin, Marines sprawled purple-faced upon the ground.
"I… I…"
Sengoku's fists clenched. He stared at the hell below, at the men dying by the hundreds in silence. His struggle showed in every twitch of his face. At last, the fists fell open.
"I accept. I will release Ace. The Whitebeard Pirates may leave Marineford."
His golden form trembled as the words escaped, wet with tears.
"The war… is over!"
At that cry, the flaming cage disintegrated, and the vacuum collapsed. Air and seawater crashed downward, slamming Marineford back into the ocean with a deafening roar.
"—haa… haa… haa…"
All across the island, Marines and pirates alike gasped desperately, dragging precious breath into their lungs, faces drenched in fear and relief alike.
And just like that, the great war—for now—lurched toward its end.